TOS Review: Bright Ideas Press: Wondermaps

Wondermaps is a map program from Bight Ideas Press that allows you to make customizable maps.

I told Precise Prince we were going to review a map program.  I said I didn't know a lot about it but he would be able to make his own maps on the computer.  We were in the car at the time and he said "Can I do it when we get home?"  I hadn't even gotten the email for it yet so I said he would have to wait until we actually get the program.  He absolutely loves maps and I can often find him drawing his own.

When I got the info to download Wondermaps on the computer, I quickly loaded it up and spent a few minutes playing around with it before calling Precise Prince in.  He started playing around and asked how many maps he could print out. I think I limited him to 3 at the time since he wasn't looking for something specific.  Knowing him, he would have printed out 20 maps if I didn't give him a limit.

Wondermaps downloads directly onto your computer. You do need to have the free Adobe Reader installed on your computer for Wondermaps to work.   There are four main categories that pop up when you first open the program-The World Continents, The United States,  Historical Maps and Thematic Maps. In addition, there are maps specifically made to go with the Mystery of History curriculum and All American History curriculum.

I love this map program!  It is easy to use and there are so many possibilities on the maps you can print out.  You choose what area you want to print (for example, the whole United States or just one state on its own) and what you want the map to look like.  Do you want color or black and white?  Do you want all the capitals printed on the map or not?  Do you want a relief map, borders, river names?  You choose!

Then there are the historical maps-maps from the ancients to present day.  My favorite part of the historical maps is that many come with the option of using a "modern overlay".  When you choose this, the modern borders show on the map and it makes it easy to see the changes from that time period to now.   We recently read a good fiction book at Easter time that was set in the time of Jesus death.  Precise Prince was asking about where Judea was and so we were able to use the Wondermaps to print out a map of the Roman Empire during Jesus time.   We printed the map out with the overlapping current borders and was able to look at a current map (again using the Wondermaps program) to see what country Judea is called today.

The thematic maps include American History, Explorers, Native Americans, World Wars, Biblical maps, 20th Century treaties and Chinese Dynasties.


There is also a teacher's guide included with a tutorial, user guide and resources, including ideas for how to outline maps and 16 easy mapping projects.

I asked Precise Prince what he thought about this program and he loves it but he had one issue.  He said he couldn't find a way to get maps with the capitals of the countries on them.  I had him show me what he meant thinking he was missing something but he doesn't seem to be.  I couldn't find a way to get the capitals of all the countries identified on the maps.  Some of the bigger countries, such as Russia and Turkey had the capitals but the smaller countries like Mali and Libya did not have the capitals.  In addition, the capitals weren't well marked and identified as such-he just knew they were the capitals.  I sent in a suggestion to Bright Ideas Press to add that in a future update.  I appreciate that Bright Ideas Press encourages their customers to let them know if there are things they would like to see added or changed about a program. 

The bottom line for us though is that we can easily recommend this map program to anyone who needs or wants one!

Wondermaps is $49.95 and can be purchased here.

Go here to see what my fellow crewmates had to say about Wondermaps.

(I received a free copy of Wondermaps in exchange for my honest opinion.  No other compensation was received.)